


Heartbreak

by Never_Eat_Sour_Wheat



Series: Tommy and G-Dad [5]
Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half-Life
Genre: Affection, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Break Up, Crying, Father-Son Relationship, First Relationship, Gen, Heartbreak, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Meet the Family, Pre-Canon, Strained Relationships, Teen Angst, Unhealthy Relationships, basically Tommy's first boyfriend sucks and G-Man is a good dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29025894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Never_Eat_Sour_Wheat/pseuds/Never_Eat_Sour_Wheat
Summary: G-Man hasn't dated in... averylong time. He trusts Tommy's judgement of other's character, though, so he isn'ttooconcerned when he learns that he has a boyfriend. He's more hurt that Tommy kept his relationship a secret for so long.But, ultimately, he's the most upset about the boyfriend himself.
Relationships: Tommy Coolatta & The G-Man, Tommy Coolatta/Original Character(s)
Series: Tommy and G-Dad [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126151
Comments: 13
Kudos: 37





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have a lot to say about this one, but, uuuuuuuh,,,,,,,,, if you're named Alec, sorry OINADSOANSDFIN   
> Also!!! Ten bucks to anyone who knows what song Tommy is playing just from reading the notes!!!

“You promise you won’t be weird?” Tommy asked as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. “Cuz I promised him you were cool. So you’ve gotta be cool, okay?”

G-Man nodded. “I will do my best to… be ‘cool’,” he said. His hands itch to reach out and get Tommy’s bangs out of his face, but he doesn’t want to make Tommy angry again. “And you p-promise that he will… stay quiet about where we live?”

“Dad! Of course!” Tommy said. He rolled his eyes, and G-Man bit back a frown. “I’ve got to hurry up and leave, but I’ll be back right after school, okay?” G-Man nodded, and the two of them stared at each other for a moment. “Um… bye.”

“Yes… I will see you tonight,” G-Man replied. He watched as Tommy left the house, and then the void. He sighed heavily and fell against the couch. Tommy was growing up so fast, and G-Man wasn’t sure if he would be able to keep up. He already felt like he’d fallen behind. 

Tommy was almost fifteen now, and he would spend more and more time on earth after school everyday. G-Man encouraged it, really. After all, Tommy couldn’t live with him in the void forever. And even if he could, Tommy was a young man and he needed people his age in his life. It did leave G-Man in the dust, however. Tommy had explained the scene subculture to him, and he did his best to understand, but he still wasn’t sure why Tommy would choose to dress the way he did. But he wore the same suit everyday, so he had no room to talk. What he hadn’t been expecting was for Tommy to also pick up the teenager trait of hating his parents. Or, well, parent in Tommy’s case. G-Man knew full well that Tommy still loved him, no matter how much he avoided saying it, or how many times he acted like he would rather be anywhere but with G-Man. That didn’t make it sting any less, though.

The… well, no, worst was the wrong words, but the “worst” thing about it all was that Tommy had a boyfriend now. G-Man was genuinely happy for his son, he was! Tommy deserved to have people he was comfortable with and that he loved, and G-Man trusted Tommy’s judgement on being with the right people. He just wished that Tommy had told him sooner. Apparently the two of them had been dating for almost six months now, and Tommy had only brought him up for the first time last week. G-Man knew that Tommy didn’t have to tell him every detail of his life, but he missed the days when Tommy would come home from school and tell him all about the nice boy in his class that made his stomach flip in funny ways. 

Maybe asking if he could meet Tommy’s boyfriend was a bit much, but Tommy had only barely been able to act like he hated the idea. It didn’t take someone who had watched him grow up to realize that Tommy was elated by the idea. He’d “reluctantly” agreed, and came home that evening with the news that his boyfriend had agreed. And, today, G-Man was going to meet his son’s boyfriend.

He really shouldn’t be as nervous as he was.

G-Man buried himself in work so he wouldn’t have to focus on his nerves the whole day. His employers knew what was planned for tonight, and they’d asked G-Man to give them the run down the next day. They cared about Tommy a great deal by now since he had been coming to work with G-Man on earth holidays that they didn’t celebrate at home. They wished G-Man luck on his way out of the building, and he secretly thought he’d need as much of it as he could get. Stepping over the threshold that led back to his part of the void made him even more sick than normal. He opened the front door carefully, and listened for Tommy or his boyfriend.

“You really suck at this,” a strange voice said as G-Man stepped inside.

“I haven’t p-played anything like this before!” Tommy said defensively. The other person (who G-Man could only assume was Tommy’s boyfriend) laughed, and G-Man couldn’t help frowning when he thought that it sounded cruel. “Let me try again…” G-Man stood in the foyer for a moment, listening as Tommy clumsily played through some song that he didn’t recognize. G, F#, B, E D, F- “Fuck!” Tommy shouted. Clearly, he’d messed up somehow.

“Language,” G-Man said firmly. He didn’t see Tommy and his boyfriend jump, but he knew they had. “I’ll be with you in… just a moment, boys.”

“Okay, Dad!” Tommy said. G-Man heard his boyfriend chuckle, and he was sure that Tommy had made some sort of gesture that was probably rude. He tried not to dwell on it. He stepped into the living room and saw Tommy and his boyfriend sitting on the piano bench. Tommy was practically sitting in the other boy’s lap, and G-Man tried not to be alarmed by it. “Dad, this is Alec.”

“Hey,” Alec said. He gave G-Man a salute, and he was pretty sure that it was meant to be mocking.

“Hello, Alec,” G-Man said. “It is… nice t-to meet you.”

“Yeah… back at you,” Alec said. “Uh, hey, Tommy, you wanna go up to your room?”

Tommy looked between Alec and G-Man, confused and concerned. “I thought you… wanted to meet my dad,” he said.

“I’m staying for dinner, right?” Alec said. Tommy nodded, and G-Man pretended that they’d discussed this beforehand. “I’ll meet him then. I wanna see your room first.”

Tommy glanced at G-Man again, and he smiled gently. “It is… alright with me,” he said. “Just keep your d-door open.”

“Dad! Gross!” Tommy yelled. He was blushing, and Alec rolled his eyes. He hopped up from the piano bench and grabbed Tommy’s hand. He practically dragged him up the stairs, and G-Man heard the door to Tommy’s room slam shut.

G-Man did _not_ like Alec.

* * *

“You’re a really bad cook,” Alec said, picking at the food on his plate.

“Well… I wish I could argue,” G-Man replied. 

“I think it’s okay!” Tommy said. Alec shot him a glare and he shrunk slightly. 

The conversation had been similarly awkward for the entire time they were eating dinner. Alec didn’t seem to want to talk at all, no matter how much Tommy or G-Man prompted him. G-Man tried not to talk too much about himself, both because his work couldn’t be shared with people without his employers’ permission, but also because he was sure that Alec would cut him off before he got to anything that might be exciting to the boys. That left Tommy to fill the gaps in conversation, something that G-Man knew wouldn’t normally be a problem for him. Tommy could talk about his interests and hobbies for hours when the mood struck him, and G-Man could listen for as long as Tommy could speak. However, every time that Tommy started to get excited about a topic, Alec would glare at him, and he’d go quiet. 

G-Man was disliking him more and more every minute.

“So… why do you guys live here anyways?” Alec asked.

“Oh…” G-Man cleared his throat. “That is certainly a… complicated question.”

“For Dad’s work, mostly,” Tommy answered. Alec smirked at his defeated tone, and G-Man felt like punching a child for the first time in a long time. “He does some, uh… some p-pretty interesting stuff.”

“Like what?” Alec asked, turning to G-Man. He still looked smug.

“If I told you, your mind might unravel,” G-Man replied. He wasn’t entirely lying either.

“Real funny,” Alec said. He rolled his eyes and went back to poking at the food in front of him. 

“Um… Alec?” Tommy said quietly. “Didn’t you have to be home by seven?”

Alec glanced at the clock and swore under his breath when he saw it was seven thirty. “You could’ve told me sooner,” he said angrily. Tommy just shrugged and didn’t look up from his food. “You could at least walk me to the door, you jerk.” G-Man balled his fists and had to repeat to himself that punching children was _wrong_. 

Tommy hopped up and took Alec’s hand to take him to the door. He didn’t even say goodbye to G-Man, just nodded to him once over his shoulder. G-Man tried not to listen in on their short conversation at the door, but he couldn’t help picking up the “playful” jabs that Alec made about Tommy that Tommy only seemed to laugh at because he didn’t know what else to do. G-Man was already stress cleaning when Tommy got back, and reminded himself that he had to trust Tommy about his decisions. Maybe Alec was completely different when no one else was around. G-Man didn’t imagine that meeting your boyfriend’s single father who wasn’t human, lived in a void, and worked for beings that might be ancient gods that were now nicknamed after certain soda brands was exactly easy. It’d put anyone on edge. He tried to believe that as he scrubbed hard at a spot on a plate that wasn’t really there.

“What’d you think?” Tommy asked as he leaned against the counter next to G-Man. He seemed excited again, and it almost broke G-Man’s heart. “He’s great, isn’t he?”

Definitely not. “I think that he was… nervous about meeting me. P-perhaps you should wait m-more than six months to bring… your next boyfriend to meet me?”

“I’m not going to have a ‘next’ boyfriend!” Tommy said happily. “Alec said that he wants to be with me forever! I think it’s going to work too…” Tommy sighed dreamily, and G-Man felt his stomach twist in anxious knots.

“It has b-been a very long time since… I have dated, but… this seems very different from what it was… like for me,” he said, trying to be cryptic about disapproving of Tommy’s relationship.

Tommy had known him for too long to not pick up on it though. “You don’t like him,” he said. G-Man bit his lip and didn’t reply. “I knew it! I knew you wouldn’t like him!” G-Man wanted to make some sort of comment on why Tommy had started dating him in the first place if he knew that he wouldn’t like him, but Tommy was already yelling again. “You’re such a jerk! I bet no one would be good enough for you!”

“T-Tommy, what are you… what are you even-”

“Just shut up! Leave me alone! I hate you!” He turned to run for the stairs, and G-Man watched him go, not sure of what else to do. He heard Tommy’s sniffling as he went, and he knew that he was going to be crying in his room for the rest of the night. He sighed heavily and leaned against the countertop.

When had parenting become so hard? When had Tommy become so different, so distant? Had he done something wrong? He thought that he did well, but he really had no way of knowing. He couldn’t even remember his own father, and he never expected to have Tommy in his life. He wouldn’t trade him for the world, but sometimes he wondered if Tommy would have been better off being adopted by someone else. A human like him.

G-Man sat on the floor carefully so he wouldn’t fall. He didn’t know when he’d last cried, and he tried not to let this be the first time in millennia, but it didn’t work. He held his face in his hands as he sobbed quietly, and tried not to think about Tommy doing the same upstairs. Hopefully he could fix this soon. 

He hated to think about how Tommy might feel about him if he didn’t.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooooooah, it's been a fucking while for this,,,,,,,,, I'm still absolutely in love with family dynamics and with HLVRAI, but I got sidetracked by a bunch of different stuff, so this chapter sat half finished for... month(s?) before I decided to jump in and finish it today. It's not my best work for sure, but I think it's alright and I hope you like it!!!

A month after Tommy brought Alec home, G-Man got a phone call in the middle of work.

He hardly ever remembered that he had a cell phone. He only had Tommy’s number, and Tommy didn’t text or call him that often. He may be having a sort of teenage rebellion, but he was always home by curfew, and G-Man trusted him to make good choices. He knew that Tommy would call him if he ever really needed him.

Which, he apparently did.

“Tommy?” G-Man said as he opened the flip phone and held it up to his ear. “Sweetheart, what’s going on?” He tried to keep the panic out of his voice, but he wasn’t sure if he was succeeding.

“H-hey, Dad,” Tommy’s voice came through the line, and G-Man could tell he was crying. “I’m sorry f-for bothering you while you’re a-at work, but…” he trailed off, and G-Man’s heart sank when he sobbed.

“Sweetheart, don’t be sorry,” he said. He started collecting the paperwork he’d been working on so he could finish it at home. His shift wasn’t over, but he was sure his employers would understand, especially if Tommy was in danger. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

“N-no,” Tommy mumbled, “not really. I just… I…” he sobbed again, and G-Man felt his heart clench tightly. “Alec cheated on me.” And now his fist was clenched tightly too. “I’m really s-sorry, I know that’s not an emergency, it’s okay i-if you can’t come home, I just wanted t-to call you because-”

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” G-Man said. “You may time me, if you’d like.”

“Dad, no, it’s okay, I’m sorry-”

“Tommy, please don’t apologize. You take precedent to anything at work,” G-Man assured him. “I’ll have to talk to my employers, so I have to hang up. But I will be there soon, I promise.” He knew that Tommy nodded, even though he didn’t say anything. “I love you, Tommy.”

“I love you t-too,” Tommy mumbled. 

G-Man really wished that these weren’t the circumstances that he heard those words again.

He raced down the hallway to his employers’ office, accidentally bumping into several people in his haste. He paused in front of his employers’ door, listening for anything inside, before he opened the door cautiously. He heard them talking in a language he couldn’t place, and that made his mind slightly staticy. “Sirs?” He said before his mind became lost in the strange language.

His employers turned to him, and all loomed over him. “G-Man,” the one with horns said sternly, “you have no reason to be meeting with us at this time.”

“I-I understand, sir, b-but Tommy… has just called me, and-”

“Is he alright?” The one with the wispy voice asked. Suddenly, his employers were concerned instead of attempting to intimidate him. He recalled several years ago when they had earned different names. “Is he in danger?” Sprite asked.

“N-no, but he is… emotionally distraught,” G-Man explained. “His… boyfriend, you remember, Alec?” His employers nodded, all of them clearly upset. “He has… apparently cheated on… Tommy.”

“What?!?” Fanta roared. G-Man had to bring his arms up to shield his face from the force of the wind that came down on him like breath. “He will pay!”

“We will see to the boy, G-Man,” Crush said, “go comfort your son.”

“Th-thank you,” G-Man said. He bowed his head and hurried out of the room. Whatever his employers had planned for Alec, he didn’t want to be around when they executed it.

G-Man rushed home as fast as he could, although he had to pause as he stepped over the threshold to his part of the void, since he wasn’t supposed to cross it so fast. As soon as he could, he was running for home again, and he practically threw the door open in his haste. “Tommy?” He called into the house.

“I-in here,” Tommy called back from the living room. G-Man threw his suitcase down and dashed into the room. Tommy was curled up on the couch, his favorite blanket wrapped tightly around him. He was feeling the fabric between his fingers, and G-Man could tell he had been doing so for a long time from the way the fuzz around his hand was lying flat. “You r-really didn’t have to c-come home, I would’ve-” Tommy was cut off when G-Man scooped him up and sat him in his lap.

“Nonsense, dear,” G-Man whispered to him. “I-I told you… you come before my work. Always.” Tommy nodded and turned to bury his face in G-Man’s chest. G-Man shushed him comfortingly and ran his hands through his hair. “It’s a-alright, sweetheart… I’m here. Everything is… okay.”

Tommy just cried for a while, curled up in G-Man’s lap and gripping him tightly. G-Man pressed kisses into his scalp and pet his hair gently, waiting for the worst of the tears to pass. Eventually, Tommy gave a final sniff and moved away. “Th-thank you,” he whispered. “I’m r-really sorry, Dad, I didn’t mean to… uh… make you worry or, or anything, I just-”

“Tommy, please s-stop apologizing,” G-Man said quietly. “You haven’t… done anything wrong, sweetheart.” He kissed Tommy’s forehead, and carefully tucked his bangs behind his ear. Tommy didn’t stop him. “How can I… help you feel better?”

“Um… can you…” Tommy trailed off and began to feel the fabric of the blanket again. G-Man sat quietly, waiting for Tommy to finish his thought. “Can you play me something?”

G-Man smiled slightly and kissed Tommy’s forehead again. “O-of course, sweetheart,” he said. Tommy carefully slid onto the couch next to him, so he could stand and walk to the piano. Tommy hadn’t specified what song he’d like to hear, so G-Man settled with some ragtime. Hopefully, it would remind Tommy of when he was younger, and comfort him.

G-Man listened quietly as his son cried on the couch, much quieter now as he tried to hear the music. It hurt his heart, but he didn’t stop playing. After a few moments, Tommy carefully stood from the couch and walked to the piano. G-Man scooted over on the bench, not stopping the song, and Tommy sat beside him. He leaned his head against G-Man’s shoulder and hummed along quietly. G-Man rested his head on top of Tommy’s, and let the song fade out.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Tommy said. He took G-Man’s hand and squeezed it so he’d let him finish. “N-not about making you leave work. About… the way I’ve b-been acting lately. I…” He fell silent for a little while, so G-Man squeezed his hand back. “No one at… at school likes me. Or, um… they didn’t used t-to. But, um… I started acting m-more like them, and… then they liked me. Or they at least pretended t-to.” He sighed quietly. “I don’t hate you. I’ve never hated you. You’ve done… so much for me, Dad. I don’t even know how to tell you how much you m-mean to me. I just… I just didn’t want to b-be made fun of anymore. S-so… I acted like a j-jerk. I’m sorry.” 

“Tommy… sweetheart, I’m so sorry,” G-Man whispered. “I-I’m sorry that you feel l-like you have to be… someone besides yourself around p-people. You are w-wonderful just the way that… you are.” He turned to kiss Tommy’s forehead again and squeezed his hand when he sobbed. “You’re a wonderful young man, and… anyone who doesn’t see that… well, th-that’s their fault.” Tommy nodded. “D-do you want to… talk about what happened with Alec r-right now?” Tommy shook his head. “Alright. Take your… time, sweetheart.” The two of them sat silently for a while longer, before G-Man carefully shifted. “I imagine that… you’re thirsty.”

“Y-yeah,” Tommy mumbled. He carefully stood up, and discarded his blanket on the couch as the two of them moved to the kitchen. Tommy hopped up onto the counter, and smiled slightly when G-Man passed him a soda. “I-I didn’t know we, um… I didn’t know we had Sunkists.”

“Well… we do now. That’s the… important thing.” G-Man hid his mischievous smile behind a sip from his own soda can. Tommy kicked his legs against the counter as he drank his soda. “Is there anything else I can do for you, sweetheart?”

“Um… can we just… spend some time t-together?” Tommy asked. He looked away. “I missed, um… I missed that.”

G-Man felt his heart melting, and he stepped over to hug Tommy tightly. “Of course… my dear,” he said as Tommy hugged him back.

Getting pizza delivered to the void was… tricky, but G-Man was resourceful above all else. Tommy didn’t want to talk much that evening, and G-Man wasn’t about to force him. The silence was a comfortable one, something that the two of them hadn’t had in a while. Various movies and shows played, although neither of them were paying a whole lot of attention to them. G-Man focused on Tommy’s breathing, while Tommy focused on his dad’s heartbeat. Both of them regulated, both of them calm, both of them still going, in part because of each other. When Tommy fell asleep against G-Man’s chest, he just hummed and let him rest. If Tommy missed school the next day because G-Man had gotten a little too comfortable on the couch and didn’t wake him, well… his teachers would simply have to make due.

And if he came home a giggling mess two days later because Alec had humiliated himself while attempting to apologize to Tommy, G-Man would simply have to give his employers a thank you note the next day.

**Author's Note:**

> Part two coming soon, hopefully,,,,,,


End file.
